DOT Approves First $900 Million to Add Infrastructure

• Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg announced the first 35 states that will get money from the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law (BIL) that was signed into law in late 2021.
• That law approved a total of $5 billion to be spent on electric-vehicle chargers over five years, and that includes installation, maintenance and other services to keep things working.
• Under the BIL’s funding formula, Texas could get the biggest slice of the EV infrastructure pie, followed by California and Florida.

The federal government has been talking for almost a year now about the $5 billion it will spend on improving electric vehicle infrastructure in the U.S. At the Detroit auto show today, Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg announced the first 35 states that had more than $900 million in funding approved for EV chargers that will end up covering 53,000 miles of highways across the country.

“Today, with funding in President Biden’s Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, we are taking an important step to build a nationwide electric vehicle charging network where finding a charge is as easy as locating a gas station,” Buttigieg said, according to prepared remarks. “With the first set of approvals we are announcing today, 35 states across the country—with Democratic and Republican governors—will be moving forward to use these funds to install EV chargers at regular, reliable intervals along their highways.”

The Bipartisan Infrastructure Law (BIL) that President Biden signed into law in November 2021 included a total of $7.5 billion for EV chargers and other alternative fueling facilities. Five billion of that was assigned to the National Electric Vehicle Infrastructure (NEVI) Formula Program. Under the NEVI program, states can receive funding from the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) for up to 80 percent of eligible project costs.

What Does the Money Go For?

Eligible costs here mean almost anything that has to do with getting EV chargers in the ground, including the “acquisition, installation, and network connection of EV charging stations,” for example, as well as maintenance of those stations once they’re in operation. NEVI also wants to make long-term EV charging station data more sharable, and any government funds have to be spent on charging stations that are non-proprietary and allow for open-access payment methods. The stations also have to be publicly available (or available to commercial drivers from more than one company) and be installed along designated FHWA Alternative Fuel Corridors (AFCs). In short, this money is meant to help as many EV drivers as possible find places to charge.

Today’s announcement covers just the first two-thirds of the EV infrastructure deployment plans from the 50 states, the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico. More EV charging funds remain to be announced, as the $900 million represents money from the 2022 and 2023 fiscal years, and the NEVI program continues until fiscal year 2026.

The Funding Formula Favors Texas

The five-year NEVI program divides money by state using a funding formula that will see 12 states get more than $100 million in funding, with the state that stands to gain the most here being Texas. While any application from Texas has not yet been approved, the Lone Star State was allocated over $407 million in the NEVI formula. The second-place state, California, could get over $383 million, and the Golden State has had its initial funding request approved. Third-place Florida, which stands to get $198 million overall, has also been approved.

“California is ahead of the game,” Scott Painter, the CEO of California-based EV firm Autonomy, told Car and Driver. “It already has the most EVs on the road and 30 percent of all public EV chargers. So it’s not surprising that Texas, given its size, population, and miles of highway, is getting a big bite of the funding. EV charging infrastructure to date has tended to follow EV registrations and state backing. The federal funding and distribution will help even out EV adoption by states and alleviate range anxiety which is one of the keys to consumer adoption.” You can see the full list of approved states here.